Colours vs. Neutrals

I was looking through my yarn stash the other day when I realized that I really only knit in a few colours - red, teal and purple. And then I looked in my wardrobe, and realized all my clothes were either grey, pink, white, or black. Where did this dissociation between my real life wardrobe, and my knitting wardrobe come from? At what point did they become two separate beings?

Take case 1 - the non-coloured wardrobe... From a functional point of view, my normal wardrobe means that everything can be easily matched, and can take me from day to night. Everything matches with grey, white or black , and the colour infused by my pinks means that I don't just look corporate, dull, or uncreative everyday.

Case 2 - My knitting wardrobe however, is awashed with colour. The only "neutrals" i have comes in the form of a scarf, and even then, that was more to do with stash busting than purposeful knitting.

Reason? After a bit of pondering, I came to realize that the reason why I don't knit in blacks or neutrals too often comes down to a few reasons.

  1. Blacks and greys - I can purchase these in abundance at any store that I frequent. Knits in these colours are everywhere during the winter months, and knitting in colour allows me to a bit more creative.
  2. Knitting in colour often emphasises a pattern's details more than neutrals do. For example, when knitting cables, it is often easier to see the detail on coloured backgrounds, than on a black background (the exclusion being in whites and creams).
  3. I knit because I enjoy it. I don't knit for the sole purpose of having something to wear. If I were to knit for the latter, it would be much easier, and immediately gratifying if i just went to the shops and bought something. Knitting in colour therefore is a bit more of a 'fantasy' thing, and is all the more enjoyable because of the previous two reasons.
So anyways, blabbering aside.... I went to my LYS again and picked out 5 balls of Grignasco Tango (again) in a blue colourway. Hopefully something enjoyable will be knit from it ;)

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